Flyers have plan of attack for McDonagh

The Flyers have a solid plan of attack for Rangers' star Ryan McDonagh (left), who is returning from a shoulder injury. He’s shown being defended by the Flyers Sean Couturier in an earlier game.
(Photo:
Anthony Gruppuso/USA TODAY Sports
)

VOORHEES – For as much planning as the Flyers are doing for the New York Rangers’ forward lines, they’re looking on the other side of the coin, also.

After all, the Flyers have weapons of their own, and the Rangers will rely heavily on their top defensemen. In fact, the Flyers think Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi will play nearly a third of the game.

“I think with those two, they’re probably both gonna be up in the 25-30 minutes played,” Wayne Simmonds figures. “You obviously want to get pucks deep and make their jobs as tough as possible. If they’re playing in their own zone, they’re not gonna be effective in the offensive zone. You just want to get pucks deep, get on them and grind them down and physically exhaust them.”

McDonagh, a candidate to win the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman, had career highs in goals (14) and assists (29) this season . The 24-year-old blueliner missed the last five games of the regular season with a shoulder injury but will return tonight.

Girardi, 29, had five goals and 19 assists this season and signed a six-year, $33 million extension with the Rangers at the end of February.

Together, they are the Rangers’ shutdown pair. They are tied for seventh in the league in terms of playing against the highest quality of competition.

Flyers forwards want to make life difficult by forcing the pair to skate into their own zone and chase the puck instead of potentially creating turnovers before the Flyers can penetrate the Rangers’ zone.

The spotlight is really on McDonagh, who edges Girardi as the Rangers’ best defenseman.

“You have to make him work,” coach Craig Berube said. “We have to grind him out, make him work, make him stay out there on long shifts, battling. That kind of stuff goes a long way. It’s important that the players are making him go back and making him work. Yeah, you want to take the body. It’s not always available.”

Now that playoff time is here, the Flyers are preparing far differently than they would for a regular-season game. The team has gone over tape of nearly every player on the Rangers’ roster. Team meetings after practice Tuesday and Wednesday were around an hour long.

“They’re right on target with what they’re doing,” Berube said. “They’ve done a real good job of preparing. They know the other players on the other team very well, and they practiced well. I think mentally they’re prepared.”

The challenge is one that’s been building for weeks, and now that it’s here, the Flyers are ready to start producing.

“If you’re not excited about this game, you’re in the wrong league and you’re in the wrong sport,” Kimmo Timonen said. “I’m really excited. The atmosphere with the team is really good, and we’ve been practicing really well the last two days.”